]]>Nickelodeon may be next to join the unbundling frenzy: Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman revealed during an earnings call Thursday that his company is looking to launch a paid streaming service with Nickelodeon programming that will be heavily mobile-focused, according to Reuters. Dauman didn’t share any additional details, but said that Viacom will have more to announce next month.

]]>http://research.gigaom.com/report/consumer-third-quarter-2014-analysis-and-outlook/feed/0Viacom blocks Suddenlink subscribers from streaming Daily Show, Colbert and other showshttps://gigaom.com/2014/10/01/viacom-blocks-suddenlink-subscribers-from-streaming-daily-show-colbert-and-other-shows/
https://gigaom.com/2014/10/01/viacom-blocks-suddenlink-subscribers-from-streaming-daily-show-colbert-and-other-shows/#commentsWed, 01 Oct 2014 20:58:47 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=877669Daily Show online are out of luck: Viacom is blocking access to its shows as part of a contractual dispute.

]]>Viacom has done it again: The cable programmer is blocking subscribers of Suddenlink from accessing its shows online as part of a contractual dispute with Suddenlink. The online blackout came in response to Suddenlink dropping Viacom’s channels from its cable lineup Wednesday after the two parties couldn’t agree on fees for a renewed carriage deal.

Cable operators have in the past argued that these kinds of blackouts violate net neutrality, and Suddenlink made the same argument in a message to subscribers, according to Multichannel News. Websites blocking access to a subset of visitors may not meet the traditional definition of net neutrality, but there is some argument about fairness to be made — after all, the blackout also affects users that only rely on Suddenlink for their internet access, but get their TV service elsewhere.

]]>Three core drivers are changing the television landscape and confusing advertisers: consolidation of big-media distribution, platform-driven viewing fragmentation, and the infiltration of social media into television.

]]>MTV may not be playing as many music videos as it used to, but the network definitely wants to be where music is happening — and nowadays, that’s online. MTV’s parent Viacom just announced a partnership with Spotify that will bring tunes and playlists from the music service to the apps and websites of MTV, VH1 and CMT.

The integration will go live later this fall, and will also involve MTV building playlists for Spotify that will be available to everyone on the music service (think the hits of Jersey Shore), with 150 playlists available at any given time. This focus on playlists could be seen as an answer to Beats, the music service that was recently purchased by Apple and that has made curated playlists one of its key differentiators. Then again, subscription music services have featured playlists from music magazines and brands for a long time, and it doesn’t really seem to have made a difference in convincing users of the idea of music subscriptions.

The integration of music directly into Viacom’s mobile apps could be a bigger boon for Spotify. A Spotify spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that the music will be made available to anyone who has signed up for a free or paid Spotify account — which could drive new sign-ups for the music service.

]]>No Daily Show for you: Customers of Cable One, a smaller cable company with 730,000 paying subscribers across 13 states, have been unable to watch their favorite Comedy Central shows, as well as any other Viacom programming, for weeks. The blackout also extends to online programming, and now FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is starting to pay attention.

Viacom’s channels went dark on Cable One’s TV line-up in early April because the two companies couldn’t agree on how much Cable One should pay Viacom to carry those channels. Viacom wants more money, which Cable One isn’t willing to pay — it’s one of many retransmission fights, which we have seen happen frequently over the last few years.

Viacom on the other hand sticks to its take and puts the blame squarely on Cable One. A Viacom spokesperson sent us the following statement via email:

“Cable One has chosen to no longer carry Viacom programming and, as a result, it is no longer available to Cable One customers in any form.”

Cable One isn’t the only provider affected by these types of online blackouts. Customers of Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico also can’t access Viacom programming online, and the American Cable Association, which represents smaller cable providers, estimates that dozens of its other smaller member companies could soon be affected as well. The group has been lobbying to get the FCC’s attention, arguing in a filing with the FCC that Viacom’s move goes against the idea of net neutrality:

“Viacom’s move to block a select group of broadband Internet customers regardless of whether they subscribed to the operators’ video offerings or not is inconsistent with the fundamental tenet of Internet openness that the Commission’s vacated 2010 Open Internet Order championed.”

It looks like the FCC is starting to pay attention to these complaints. Asked about the conflict, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said during a hearing this week that it is a trend that “we should all worry about,” according to a Los Angeles Times report (hat tip to DSL Reports). Of course, this doesn’t mean that the FCC will, or even can, do anything about it any time soon, but the timing could help to put more pressure on the commission to enact stronger net neutrality regulations.

]]>Google and Viacom announced on Tuesday morning that they have resolved a long-running legal dispute over unauthorized TV show clips posted during the early days of YouTube.

The case, which began in 2007 when Viacom demanded $1 billion from Google, has been seen as a landmark test of copyright law’s so-called “safe harbor” rules, which can protect website owners from copyright infringement committed by their users.

Google has won a series of major victories in the case, including last April when a court threw out the case for a second time on the grounds that Google did not have “red flag” knowledge of the infringing shows. The judge had initially dismissed the case in 2010 but an appeals court partially reinstated it, leading to the second dismissal in April.

Viacom filed an appeal once again last year, but the sides have now laid the matter to rest, citing a desire for collaboration:

“Google and Viacom today jointly announced the resolution of the Viacom vs. YouTube copyright litigation. This settlement reflects the growing collaborative dialogue between our two companies on important opportunities, and we look forward to working more closely together.”

The companies did not say if Google paid Viacom under the settlement, though Recode reports that no money changed hands.

The statement not only signifies an end to one of the country’s biggest copyright cases, but also reflects Google’s evolving relation with content creators. When the initial suit was filed in 2007, Google was regarded with enmity by studios and other copyright owners, who argued the search giant sought to profit from illegal content. Today, Google is itself a major player in the content creation space, and has assuaged many critics with its Content ID system, which provides a way for content owners to insert ads into YouTube clips uploaded by users.

The decision to settle the case reflects better relations between Google and content owners, but also comes at a time when studios have been having some limited success in chipping at copyright law’s safe harbor rules.

]]>The shift from fixed to mobile platforms has the potential to disrupt the TV advertising economy by enabling new ways to aggregate, measure and engage with audiences beyond the exclusive control of TV programmers.

Verizon’s FIOS TV is the first pay TV provider to get a new, customizable kids TV channel dubbed My Nick Jr. from Viacom in the coming months, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Parents will be able to pick themes like “get creative” to launch a continuous stream of kids shows from the Viacom vault, and kids will be able to rate each show to further personalize their programming. Think Pandora, but with Dora instead of Lorde. Viacom wants to bring the offering to other TV providers after launching it on FIOS.